i'm tearing some carpet out of my house. it's in excellent condition; almost new. does the 3rd ave crew want it for their rigging area? if so, is there anyone with a truck willing to come get it in HMB?

behindThePeak wrote:i'm tearing some carpet out of my house. it's in excellent condition; almost new. does the 3rd ave crew want it for their rigging area? if so, is there anyone with a truck willing to come get it in HMB?

Please do not bring the carpet to 3rd, Foster City is planning on installing artificial turf in the rigging area.

It would be a horrible idea to put any carpet on the upper launch. At super high tides it would get swamped. Imagine the mess... What we really need are large quantities of dirt or sand. If anyone has a dump truck full of sand, I would be happy to push a wheelbarrow up and down the bike path. Unfortunately, I am sure at least one of the local governing entities would frown on us taking it into our own hands.

I'm really bummed that nobody seems to care that the upper launch is going to disappear in just a few years. The SFBA is completely silent and all that Foster City activity seems focused on the parking lot and windsurf area.

This is a repost from Jim McGrath the SFBA Vice President and BCDC Commissioner.3rd ave upper launch erosion

I agree that this is a problem, but of very substantial scale. My background is in coastal engineering and shoreline retreat on the open coast. The beaches on the West Bay in this area are highly disturbed, and the shoreline is both retreating and adjusting, as well as responding to sea level rise. There was a pretty good look done at Coyote Point as part of the County's efforts to build a beach there. Essentially, the shoreline was pushed out with fill over the mudflats. (It is also altered by other nearby fill areas, like that to the upcoast of the power lines.) All of this alters both the supply of sand and the wave energy. David Lyon has poked around a bit, and I asked two technical experts--Bob Battalio, ESA's coastal engineer, and Peter Baye, who has worked on beach restoration (e.g Aramburu Island in Marin County) for a little informal help.

There are two problems. First, long term erosion and sea level rise has eroded not just the beach, but areas up wind (up wave energy direction), so shoaling of waves occurs closer to the beach, bringing more wave energy and accelerating erosion. Second, but not so clear to me, the shoreline was perhaps filled many years ago and is now seeking a new equilibrium. Unless we understand the issues, and have the City behind us, any restoration efforts are doomed.

The good news is that the agencies who regulate the shoreline now understand that soft solutions--eg. restored beaches--are better habitat than rip-rap. So there are some prospects for eventual support and solutions, but the price tag is in the millions, and the time scale is in the five to ten year horizon.